A very small, very chubby tri-colored brown Australian shepherd puppy bounded over to Charlie and Nia because hey, fun! It yipped merrily, ran over to Nia and licked her knee, and then froze at the sound of Bea's voice.
"Pax!" Bea said as she appeared wearing a pair of blue Hello Kitty shorts and a white tube top, Pippa walking next to her. "Hey!" she said with a bright smile to Charlie and Nia as she picked up her new puppy. "Sorry. We didn't mean to pool-crash."